Query Letters: advice from literary agents
A query letter is the short, professional pitch you send a literary agent to introduce yourself and your manuscript. It is usually the first thing an agent reads from you, so it has to do a lot of work in very little space. Below, working literary agents answer the questions writers ask most about getting a query letter right.
Create a free LitConnect account and submit your pitch.
Questions on Query letters
- Why does your query letter matter?, Ismita Hussain: It is your first contact with a potential agent and the first writing of yours they read, so it is where you make a professional first impression.
- How do you query agents without spamming them?, Ismita Hussain: Follow each agent’s directions and answer everything they ask; don’t query one at a time, but don’t carpet bomb either, because querying is a skill and your first draft is rarely your best.
- How long should a query letter be?, Ismita Hussain: Keep it under 300 words. Agents read hundreds a month, so give them the facts and a sense of your voice, then let them get to your sample.
- What goes in the first paragraph of a query letter?, Ismita Hussain: A simple salutation with the agent’s name, then your title in caps, word count, an honest genre, comp titles, and a real age range, closing with your logline.
- What is a logline and how do you write one?, Ismita Hussain: A logline is a short, one-sentence hook that gets to the heart of your plot and can weave in your comps, and it closes your first paragraph.
- What should the second paragraph of a query letter contain?, Ismita Hussain: Treat the second paragraph like back-cover copy, not a synopsis: in about three sentences, introduce your main characters and get to the stakes as early as possible.
- What goes in the bio paragraph of a query letter?, Ismita Hussain: Keep the third paragraph to two or three sentences: where you are based, anything pertinent to the book, your writing credentials, and your contact information.
- Why do AI-written query letters get rejected?, Ismita Hussain: Don’t. Agents want to hear from you, not a model, and AI-written queries read as generic, which is death in the query pile.
- How many comp titles should you use in a query letter?, Ismita Hussain: Two is ideal; it lets an agent triangulate where your book sits. You can add a third in your second paragraph, but don’t cram in five or six.
- Should you query with a pen name or your real name?, Ismita Hussain: Query with your real name even if you’ll publish under a pen name; it won’t get you rejected, but an offer of representation needs your legal name for the contract.